Police looking for missing Williamston mother

WILLIAMSTON - Police are looking for a young mother from Williamston who has been missing for nearly two weeks.

Sheena Pierce was last seen Aug. 19 outside her stepfather's home on C Street in Williamston. She is 23, and has a 5-year-old daughter.

The search continued Tuesday morning, said Capt. Jay Grubbs of the Williamston Police Department. The department is coordinating with North Carolina authorities to make sure Pierce is not the same missing woman also being sought there, Grubbs said.

Pierce's stepfather, Jerry Allen, said his neighbor saw Pierce getting into the back seat of a silver sports utility vehicle, possibly a Kia, with a dark stripe on the hood.

"I wasn't home, but he was out cutting his grass and saw her," Allen said. "She got in the middle of the back seat and there was another man in the back seat."

Pierce has not been seen since.

Her stepfather said that it is out of character for her to just take off and not tell anyone where she is going.

"She wouldn't do that to her family," he said. "She wouldn't do that to her little girl."

Allen said his stepdaughter recently moved into his home after she left her husband. "I've had a stroke, so she moved in to take care of me," Allen said. "She is recently separated, but she has lived with that guy for eight years and he has never laid a hand on her. He sat right here with me last night and cried like a baby."

Allen said he was not worried about his stepdaughter at first, because she is an adult. But he started worrying late last week when her cell phone stopped ringing and instead went straight to voicemail.

That cell phone number went straight to voicemail again Monday night.

Allen said he had gotten several text messages from Pierce's cell phone since she was last seen, but he is not sure that his stepdaughter is the person sending the messages.

"I got one saying, ‘I'm in the mountains,' and I said ‘What are you doing in the mountains?'" Allen said. "All she said back was, ‘I'm OK. I'm happy.'"

Allen said he didn't know which mountains the message might refer to. He said that one of the messages said that his stepdaughter wanted to be left alone.

"I just can't believe that is her," he said. "It doesn't sound like her. We kind of have our own little code and she just doesn't talk like that. And she would not go this long without talking to her daughter. "

The little girl is staying with her father, Allen said.

Allen said that he thinks Pierce left the house with only the clothes on her back.

She is 5 feet 3, about 140 pounds. She has brown hair and blue eyes, and was last seen wearing a green T-shirt, jeans and flip flops.

Grubbs said investigators can find no evidence that Pierce borrowed money from anyone, or that she had any credit cards or debit cards. She also does not appear to have her own bank account, Grubbs said.

"From everything we have heard, it is totally unlike her to just leave with no explanation," Grubbs said. "This remains a very active investigation, and we are looking for leads."

Allen said he can think of no reason that his stepdaughter would willingly leave.

His voice breaks when he talks about the young woman whom he has helped raise since she was a little girl.

"I can't help thinking something is wrong," he said. "I can't shake the feeling that she is either hurt or she is being held against her will."

Anyone with information about Pierce is asked to call Williamston police at (864) 847-7425.